journey over water, through forest and mountain: you
get a real sense of the vastness of Russia, and it was
absolutely exhilarating to me. Basically, it’s a chase
novel, and it has the breakneck pace of that, and lots
of twists and turns, culminating in an especially
unexpected and satisfyingly resolved one. But it is
also beautifully written, as tight and clever as Around
the World in Eighty Days, and much more passionate
and exciting. No wonder that despite historical
anachronisms (the real Tartars not being a threat at all
in the 19th century) French critics reckon it’s Verne’s
best novel, and it has also influenced many French
writers and film-makers. Never out of print in France
and still a huge favourite amongst readers, it has also,
I believe, been part of the reason why Russia is
viewed in France in a much more sympathetic way
than in English-speaking countries.
That novel led me directly as a teenager to plunge
into actual Russian literature — to Chekhov, Tolstoy,
Dostoevsky, Gogol, Bulgakov, and so on, and it’s a
passion that has never left me but only deepened and
widened with the years, expanding into modern
Russian literature of all types including, recently, the
gritty fiction of Zakhar Prilepin and the wonderful
urban fantasy novels of Sergei Lukyanenko (The
Night Watch series).
A few years ago, I wrote a novel based on
Russian folklore, The Firebird (Hachette, 1999). And
then, in 2010, after decades of dreaming about it, I
went to Russia for the first time — an amazing and
wonderful trip by water, from Moscow to St
Petersburg, stopping at many towns and villages
along the way. And as I stood on the deck of the boat
last year, as we glided serenely down the vast rivers
and lakes of Russia, past endless forests and ancient
towns, I thought of Michel Strogoff, and how
wonderful it was that I’d been brought here, by that
book picked up in childhood.
It hasn’t ended there. After that first Russian trip,
I came away with a journal bursting with images,
ideas, and pictures, and began not just one but two
novels: one, a YA fantasy called Scarlet in the Snow
(Random House Australia, 2013) and the second, an
adult novel, first in the Trinity series, Trinity: The
Koldun Code (Momentum 2014). A second Russian
t rip in 2012 (an independent travel trip, and armed
this time with some conversational Russian after a
three-month course) enriched the texture of the novels
even further. I'm working now on the second book of
the Trinity series, The False Prince (out later this
year.) What's more, with three friends, I started a
press called Christmas Press specialising in
traditional tales from around the world: and the
launch title was my retelling of two Russian folktales
in Two Trickster Tales from Russia.
It all started with Michel Strogoff: but it won't
end there, for in an exciting development, I'm thrilled
to be part of a fantastic project, still under wraps, but
which will see the ‘best adventure story of all time’,
as the book's been described, fully re-translated into
English, for the first time in a hundred years! Watch
this space!
Sophie Masson is the award-winning author of
more than 50 novels for readers of all ages,
published in Australia and many other countries.
Find out more about Trinity: The Koldun Code at:
www.momentumbooks.com.au/books/trinity-thekoldun-code-book-1/
www.firebirdfeathers.com
www.sophiemasson.org
An extract from Trinity (Book 1) follows -